The Testing of our Faith

There is a way to walk joyfully and meaningfully through all the trials of life

Testing of our faith is ultimately joyous, gracious, and blessed. It is a gift from above, and all of God’s gifts are good.

1. Testing is Joyous - 2-4

Count - Consider - hold the view, have the opinion.

Joy - delight, the experience of gladness

Trials - the act of examining something closely.

can be “testing” or “temptation” depending on the context, as we will see in this very passage.

What is the nature of this testing?

it is the testing of our faith.

Anything that can show the reality or unreality of our faith, or any opportunity to disbelieve or distrust God.

In that sense, the testing of our faith is constant. We are all under some constant test of our faith to some degree.

Even if you are here and are not a believer, every corner in life that you turn is an opportunity.

Faith, here, is the opportune key - a reliance upon and trust in God.

Trials show whether we have it at all, and they show to what extend it has grown, and they serve to grow it.

Verse 3

Testing, here “the process that shows genuineness” or “that which shows something is not counterfeit”

Produces - brings about - a process with intention, progress, and outcome. ‘

Steadfast Endurance - the power to withstand hardship and distress. An ability to endure.

Verse 4

The “full effect” of this patient endurance is being complete, lacking nothing.

perfect and complete - a process of growth until one is not “lacking anything”

This is all in the context of faith, and testing of faith, so the goal here is strong faith that stands up.

In James, it is the kind of faith that remains true in devotion to God regardless of trials.

Ultimately, it is the kind of faith that is ready to stand before God.

God is working to produce strong believers, strong believers who can endure any number of trials and hardships.

This is only possible through faith in Him.

If you have faith in Him, consider this all joy, because this is a good process.

2. Testing is Gracious

Seems to move on, changing subjects to wisdom, but James will be right back to trials in verse 12. It is helpful to remember the audience in verse 1.

this whole opening section has the experience of suffering and hardship in mind.

This gives us insight into how this section, 5-11, fit right into the same picture.

Wisdom - the trait of utilizing knowledge and insight in day-to-day life. Also, specialized knowledge or skill.

this is helpful, because standing up under trial is a specialized skill.

counting trials and hardships as joy is a specialized skill.

Whatever it is you face in life, it requires this specialized knowledge and skill called wisdom.

How do we get it?

“Let him ask God.”

The means to walk through all of life’s trials and hardships joyfully and meaningfully is the wisdom that only God provides.

God gives generously - that is grace.

We sometimes view wisdom as something that only comes with grey hair (or maybe lack of hair)

But all the wisdom needed to face life joyfully and meaningfully is not available simply by living life. There are piles of wisdom and insight that only come from God, who gives graciously to those who ask Him.

“Let him ask in faith.”

The key to receiving anything from the Lord is faith.

Notice, it is right back to faith. The very trials and hardships that we need wisdom to endure are meant to show and strengthen our faith, and the means to getting the wisdom that we need for life is faith in God.

Do you have faith in God? Are you walking through life with faith in God?

Notice how James characterizes those who walk through life without faith.

A doubter

one who holds back from trusting God

one who tries to hold all the cards

one who won’t relinquish the sense of control

Driven by the waves

shaken

Unstable

Fickle, disorderly, uncontrolled

What is the warning? “that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.”

Those who walk through trials joyfully and meaningfully are those who are characterized by a firm and unshaken reliance upon God. God, who is gracious and benevolent - generous and giving without respect of persons.

Remember, again, the position of those who were originally being written to.

They experienced a kind of “leveling” that happens in intense trials. Certain trials tend to do that to us.

If you have intense marital struggles, it really doesn’t matter whether you are rich or poor.

If you face intense anxiety or depression, your bank account really doesn’t do much for you.

If you have suffered the loss of a loved one, your status in society doesn’t take the sting away.

If you, yourself, are facing death, as they say, there aren’t any uhauls behind hearses.

In the final day, in the final judgement, the riches of the rich won’t do them any good, and the poorness of the poor won’t leave them any worse off.

To what extent the trials of this life remind us of that, we should boast and exalt in that reminder.

And remember, that God does not give the needed wisdom to walk through trials joyfully and meaningfully based on our income. He gives it based on our faith.

3. Testing is Blessed

Blessed - Makarios

Like the beatitudes, it is joy but not a joy that comes and goes with circumstance. It is happiness, but not a merely emotional happiness, because we don’t always smile when we suffer.

It is a state of being blessed, so that a blessed person is worthy of congratulating.

This blessedness comes from the fact that the one who walks through life with faith in God, having stood the whole process of testing by faith, will receive the “crown of life.”

What is this crown?

Stephanus, a victor’s wreath, given to athletes.

The “crown” is not a reward, as if it were some inheritance of gold and precious stones.

The reward is what the “crown” symbolizes, which is life.

Stephen, the first martyr, ironically was named based on the word “sephanus,” and he was the first to receive this crown of life through suffering. Acts 7

Here is the blessed hope, that for those who walk through life with faith in God, regardless of the difficulty and intensity of the trials here on earth, on the other side stands the bright and shining reward of eternal life.

1 Peter 1:6–9 ESV

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The “crown of life” is the salvation of your soul. That salvation which only comes by faith in Christ.

John 14:6 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 10:9–11 ESV

I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

Know this, that if you are walking through life without the good shepherd, without faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then all of this blessedness - the experience of joy, the experience of meaning within the trials, the promise of eternal life, the salvation of your soul, is not yours.

But in Christ, it can be. He stands and calls you today, come to me. I am the way, I am the door, trust me, believe in me, love me.

Acts

Testing Versus Temptation

James, very helpfully, gives us a word on the difference between testing and temptation. He uses a very similar word for the two, but the context of the passage shows us how they are different.

What is the problem?

Some, facing trials, see them not as a means of growth and as a gracious tool for their good, but rather as an opportunity and temptation to sin.

This is why we need wisdom and faith.

Without wisdom from above, we view ourselves and god wrongly in the trials of life.

Without faith, or trust in God, we have a distorted view of our relationship with God.

When we view trials without faith in God, and without the wisdom that he gives, we view trials in life as attacks, as cruel, and as an occasion or excuse for sin.

This is such a common experience and inner-accusation against God that James addresses it strongly.

“let no man say, when he is tempted, I am tempted by God.”

Again, the context in verses 14-15 tell us that this is talking about temptation to sin, not simply testing.

Notice what James tells us, though, about God’s character.

He cannot be tempted with evil.

He tempts nobody

We could put it this way - there can be nothing evil about anything that has to do with God.

1 John 1:5 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

Since there is no evil or darkness in God, and since there can be nothing evil about anything to do with God, then that means that trials that God gives and allows are never God-given opportunities to sin.

There is real danger, because when we oppose or despise the trials that God gives, we can actually be doing the kind of work that Satan himself does.

Matthew 16:22–23 ESV

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

How can we sin in trials?

We can sin by resenting or lashing out in sinful anger against God.

We can sin by choosing not to trust Him.

We can sin by resorting to vices or unrighteous sources of comfort.

We can sin by lashing out against others and mistreating them.

We can sin by being unthankful.

We can sin by walking away altogether.

But know this, clearly from the scripture, God never places a trial in front of you in order to tempt and entice you to sin or walk away.

So where does that come from? Because we know that within trials, which God does give and allow, we do face this kind of enticement and temptation.

James 1:14–15 ESV

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

Yes, the opportunity for enticement and temptation to sin already exists within us.

Our own “desire” - strong desire, lust - is what entices us to failure in trials.

And James speaks of it as a process.

Desire, conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown and matured, brings death.

Do you see the comparison, then, that is taking place in this passage?

One who walks faithfully in trials by the wisdom that God gives endures and is rewarded with life.

One who walks in his own strength and instability falls to temptation in trials and the end of that path is death.

Growth in faith is a process, and apart from that, we are growing in our trajectory toward death.

And it is no coincidence that James talks of lust and sin as conception and birth, because he also speaks of another “birth” that we need.

The Nature of God’s Gifts

Backing up the idea that God never tempts us to sin, James reminds us that every gift that God gives is good, because God is good and He never changes.

Verse 18, then, speaks of one of God’s good gifts that he gives as being the gift of new birth.

Sin “brings forth” death, but God, by His grace and goodness, “brings forth” life.

John 1:9–13 ESV

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 3:3 ESV

Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Dear one, we all face trials in life. Every person, christian or non Christian, rich or poor, young or old, will face incredible hardships in life.

There is a way to walk joyfully and meaningfully through all the trials of life, but it only comes by faith in Jesus Christ, who gives life to those who love Him, who gives new birth to those who trust in Him.

Are you trusting Jesus with the trials of your life? are you trusting Him, knowing that he will give you eternal life? Or are you walking through life in your own strength and instability? Will you trust Him today?

And Christian, are you walking joyfully and meaningfully through the trials that God allows in your life? It is His will that you trust Him, that you ask for wisdom, and that you experience joy even in the difficulty, even in the hardship.